1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of this disclosure relates to a device, a power-saving control method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exist devices that transition (or switch) to a power-saving mode (or energy-saving mode) to save power when, for example, the devices are not operated for a predetermined period of time. Examples of such devices include image forming devices like a printer, a facsimile machine, a copier, and a multifunction peripheral. Also, there is an image forming device where components (e.g., programs) running on the image forming device are queried to determine whether transition to the power-saving mode is acceptable for the components (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-152824). The image forming device transitions to the power-saving mode only if it is acceptable to the components. This configuration makes it possible to prevent malfunction of the components and damage to data being processed by the components, which may occur as a result of an abrupt transition to the power-saving mode.
Meanwhile, there is an image forming device where functions can be added after the factory shipment by installing application programs that can be developed using public application programming interfaces (APIs). In such an image forming device, a large number of application programs may be running depending on the needs of the user.
Here, an increase in the number of application programs running on a device such as an image forming device indicates an increase in the number of objects to be queried to determine whether to transition to the power-saving mode. That is, it is necessary to query all installed application programs to determine whether transition to the power-saving mode is acceptable. Accordingly, if the number of objects to be queried increases, the time necessary to determine whether to switch to the power-saving mode increases. This may result in a delay in switching to the power-saving mode and may reduce the power-saving efficiency.